Can flipped classroom pedagogy offer promising perspectives for mathematics education on pandemic-related issues? A systematic literature review

Abstract

Educators sometimes effect changes in education through the implementation of new ideas, and sometimes extraordinary circumstances force them to change their educational approaches, as during the COVID-19 crisis. Although we live in a digital age, the limited use of technology in education, particularly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and teachers’ insufficient experience with online or hybrid learning and teaching approaches resulted in several countries being unprepared for education during the pandemic. The flipped classroom (FC) is an innovative pedagogy with the potential to engage students in mathematics education using hybrid education combined with online and face-to-face learning, which is especially important during a pandemic. However, despite the high expectations surrounding this innovative approach, to date, no systematic literature review has discussed the opportunities and pitfalls of FCs in mathematics education regarding pandemic-related issues. In the present systematic review, we aim to bridge this gap and highlight the importance of flipping mathematics instruction during the pandemic and beyond. The results, which are based on textual analysis of 97 eligible articles, demonstrate that FC is a promising pedagogy that has numerous benefits for mathematics teaching and learning, although it is not a panacea for pandemic-related issues, as it also has several significant pitfalls. Overall, if the mechanism of mathematics education is to be crisis-ready, we should learn from experiences during the pandemic. In this regard, the current review contributes to research in mathematics education with the aim of gaining insight into successful implementations of FC pedagogy, not only during the pandemic but also beyond the crisis era of a pandemic.